Schemes for Summer

A few weekends ago I had Wynter Croix over to our house to spend a few days. I won't go into detail about the shopping trips and inside jokes that arose over the course of those three days, as that's not what this blog is for and it would probably bore most of you. (Keep a lookout for a new fashion blog we might be starting soon, though!)

More to the point, while Wynni was here we chatted about LARP stuff. I've been having a spurt of desire to LARP in the Lore world lately, so together Wynnie and I created a persona for her that she could use in Lore when summer finally comes back around.

I think I've talked briefly about Lore in a couple posts, though come to think of it that was quite some time ago. I keep forgetting I've had this blog for so many months.

In short, Lore is a land where an edge of all fairytales, legends, and myths meet together. So each of the different realms there are a piece of a legend/fairytale sticking into Lore. There's the fairytale kingdom, there's the Ice Kingdom, there's Fafnir's Lair, there's a section of Sherwood Forest, and the prominent province of Camelot, plus many others including Oriental and Middle Eastern tales.

Of course, all these stories are reinvented and retold in our own unique way, as we do with pretty much everything. But I won't go into lengthy detail about that just now. Now I'm going to tell you about the new addition to Lore, Wynni's persona: The Red Rider's Daughter.

For the more squeamish of my readers, I will note that there is dragon blood in this discourse I'm about to give. I'm not one to be bloody and gory and all that sort of dark stuff, but dragon blood, scales, breath, horns, claws, etc. are often a prominent feature in fairytales, so I decided not to chuck it out like I have with the purely magical stuff. Just sayin'.

So, once upon a time there lived a man named Samil. He was a huntsman, who lived in a small village on the outskirts of the Dragonwood, beyond which lay the mountain that housed Fafnir's Lair. It so happened that Samil fell in love with the daughter of a neighboring farmer, and married her shortly after. They lived happily for some time, but Samil began to drift. He became increasingly interested in tales of magic and power and alchemy, dicontent with his current living situation as a mere huntsman.

As this transformation went on, Samil's wife gave birth to a beautiful little girl, who they named Lahava, which meant "Darkness", after a white flower that only opened on moonless nights. Samil loved her very much, and for a time lived once again with contentment in the little house. He taught her many things, including how to pluck flowers and suck the little pocket of sweet nectar from the base.

Then one day, three year old Lahava discovered the flower of a Red Rider plant. This plant, named after a villainous horseman who always wore a red cloak in old stories told around the fire, is the rarest in Lore, except in the Dragonwood. It is known to contain the deadliest poison in every part of it from the roots to the crimson petals. Even the nectar.

Thrown into the pit of desperation, Samil ran not for the doctor, but into the Dragonwood, in spite of his wife's pleadings. In his exploration of alchemy, he learned that one sure cure for Red Rider poison was dragon blood. The strong chemical properties mix to nuetralize the fatal effects of poison.

So to Fafnir Samil ran for aid, the evil dragon that controlled the Dragonwood and the dark mountainous area beyond it. Fafnir's servants, the Halflings, took the distraught man to see the dragon lord, where Samil explained his plight. Fafnir listened with his yellow eyes watching and his mind scheming.

What Samil did not know was that when the dragon blood is mixed with the Red Rider plant, what results is a neurological drug that irrepairably leaves the brain in a submissive, robot-like state. This state is most commonly known as Halfling.

However, Fafnir explained with a sly rumble in his voice, if Samil's daughter wore a necklace with the dragon blood hidden inside it and never took it off, the chemical reaction would be enough to keep the poison from reaching her heart and killing her, without doing any damage to her mind.

But there was a condition. Drawing Samil near with his taloned paw, Fafnir told him that he would only do this for him if Samil agreed to work for him as his personal servant for the rest of his life.

In his grief and troubled spirit, Samil agreed, pledging his life. He returned to his home with the special necklace Fafnir had given him long enough to present it to his daughter, saving her life, tell his wife to never let Lahava take it off, and kiss them both goodbye. Amidst the tears of both mother and daughter, Samil returned to the Fafnir's Lair, and from that night on, Samil became the Red Rider, chief of Fafnir's Halfings, and assassin dreaded by all. No longer did he remember his former life. He worked for Fafnir, keeping the wicked dragon's army of Halfings at an adequate number and snuffing out the more annoying of Fafnir's enemies.

Lahava grew to be a conflicted lass. Her mother became sickly as the girl grew older, always telling her never to remove the necklace, and finally died when Lahava was twelve, much to the girl's sadness. Believing her father dead and herself an orphan, Lahava became a roaming gypsy girl. She became fast friends with a brownie named Jynnx, and as she grew she felt torn,  struggling to define and choose between good and evil. Now at sixteen, Lahava will be tested, as she is thrown into the company of true heroes, sly theives, vengeful alchemists, and even Fafnir himself, where sooner or later, she will have to choose a side.

So that is Lahava, daughter of the Red Rider, and Wynni's Lore LARP character. Can you tell that I can't wait until spring?

Dia duit,
~Penny